A forum for people who suffer from chronic or persistent coughs to share ideas... these don't have any sort of official approval so you try any of them out at your own risk. I've consigned some of the more unusual ones I received to the Oddities bin on the left. I've also listed very simple remedies separately. If you're a sufferer, good luck, and please report back by commenting on the particular posting if you find success. Or just comment to the most recent posting and I will pick it up.

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Three months on the morphine!

And my cough is quite a lot less troublesome. I'm sleeping better so I don't wake in the early hours and start coughing. I still do cough once I'm fully awake, but it doesn't last for too long. Then through the day it's variable and unpredictable. I'm still chewing a lot. In the evening it's not too bad, but then can be a problem when I try to get to sleep.Overall though, I'm still glad to be taking the morphine and I'm following the advice to be on it for six months.I was interviewed by Fi Glover on Radio 4's Saturday Live programme - it's not been transmitted yet but I anticipate a few more remedy suggestions when it does, and I'll pass them on.Keep the coughing down, and your spirits up!!!!

6 comments:

Anonymous
said...

Hi,I read your blog almost 5 or 6 month ago. At that time I was struggling with chronic coughing problem and it was a total disaster for me. I visited several doctors but most of them told me I don't have any breathe problem and etc. I had this miserable coughing for 3 or 4 years. Now fortunately the problem is totally over. I discovered something that worked for me and would like to share it with you. That it is: Whenever you feel a cough up stroke, drink 1 liter or more of warm to hot clean water. drink until you feel sweat.Then the stroke is over. With this you can take away cough up stroke out of your habit and mind and make strokes period shorter and shorter.I hope this works for you. Please write in your blog if it helped.

I've just been listening to your item on Saturday Live and was shouting at the radio "Yes! Yes!"

Like you I had a persistent cough for 10 years. I also used to chew gum and sip water as I found that the act of chewing or drinking helped to reduce the coughing. Eventually the coughing affected my throat and I lost my voice completely. That was really scarey! This finally drove me to the doctor who referred me to the ENT consultant at the local hospital, followed by the chest consultant.I spent a week on an Novacain inhaler as it was thought I had oversensitive bronchia.Nothing helped.

The chest consultant then arranged for me to have a blood test for allergies.Bingo! 6 months later the results came back from London.

I was allergic to something I ate.The consultant gave me a list of things to cut out of my diet. It was pretty drastic.

milkeggssoyaWheatcodpeanuts

I cut everything out for 2 weeks and miracle of miracles, the cough stopped!

I then proceeded to add one item at a time to see what happened.

Finally we narrowed it down to milk and eggs.

The penny dropped! When I'm at home working on the computer I used to drink a lot more tea (with skimmed milk) than normal, 'co-incidentally' the cough was a lot worse when I had a day working on the computer!!

I'm now on a complete dairy and egg free diet and very, very, rarely cough.

I know the minute I've eaten something containing the tabboo ingredients. It appears that I'm not lactose intollerant, it's the milk protien, cassein, which is included in a lot of products, including most spreads, even olive spread!!

I now use Pure soya spread and avoid everything containing dairy or egg, describing myself as a meat eating vegan. :) The local wholefood shop stocks a huge range of dairy-free products.

Since discovering what my problem is I've spoken to several people who have an intollerance to dairy products. It's the cassein, milk protein, not the lactose that causes the problem.

Life is now a continual search and check routine to ensure that nothing I eat contains milk or eggs but it's worth it to avoid the irritating cough.

Good luck Ian.

If he hasn't already done so, suggest to your doctor that you have a blood test for allergies. Tell him why and make sure it's the full job and sent to one of the top allergy testing labs in London. It might take several months for the results to come back but you never know, it might be the light at the end of the tunnel.

I never refer to my problem as an allergy, it's not life threatening, just darned irritating for me and all around me. I tell people I have a food intollerance.

Eating out can be a problem but good restaurants are very helpful at tweaking their menu to accommodate my needs. There are a lot of foods that I avoid but life is so much better that it's worth the limitations on my diet to be free of the cough.

If this works for you then you have to take a calcium supplement. A lot of soya alternatives contain added calcium too. There's an up side to my new dietary regime though. Due to the non-dairy diet my cholesterol levels are much lower and sweetened soya milk on breakfast cereal much tastier than watery skimmed milk! :)

I heard the interview on Saturday Live today, and was struck by the similarities between your case (Nick) and my own. (E.g., teenage years in Manchester, played/sang in bands, career as lecturer (in London), similar age (65), plus all of the symptoms that you evidence). I've had my cough for only six years. I've had medical assistance in London and in North Wales where I live now. Although it is somewhat dismaying to hear that you have found no cure, it is also somewhat comforting to discover that I'm not alone.

It was interesting to hear about the morphine, I would have gratefully tried that a few years ago but apparently I'm not coughing as much now. It definately lasted 15 plus years and I hardly noticed it easing off. Like Nick I had investigations and various treatmentd. No joy. I was also refered to the buteyko site. Lately it has been worse again but (my husband says) not as bad as the first time. When I cough, which is for some part of every day, it can get to be like a whooping cough and sometimes turns into a sneezing fit. Sll this seems to sugest an allergy. The most relief is indeed when I avoid wheat. Especially white bread.At least it's good to know sombody thinks it;s getting betterMarilyn

I don't know how relevant this is, but I was diagnosed as having a nasal or sinal drip some ten years ago. Apparently it's effect on my sinuses made me vulnerable to getting tinnitis, too - thankfully not too badly, but it ties in with someone else's comment. No doctor offered me any chance of treatment until one asked if I'd ever tried cetirizine. It's an anti-histamine, and it worked, instantly. Which apparently means I must be allergic to something, although no-one seems to think it relevant to find out what. I had a very bad reaction to Neutradol, and to warm Nivea lotion....both made me feel I couldn't breathe. The Cetirizine is marvellous, you take it every day - the only drawback is that you become immune to it, so I try to have a rest from it every so often. Suspect my father had the same condition, as he too coughed and sneezed at the slightest excuse. Have been told it's very common. I'm now trying echinacea to see if it will build up my immune system (advice from a health food shop). All bugs and viruses go straight to my throat and cause massive hacking coughing, and I find the only way to get a night's sleep is to tuck a Tunes lozenge into my cheek and let it ooze down my throat over night. Hope all this might help someone else, and if anyone has any further thoughts on it, I'd be very happy for any advice. Although I don't think I would dare go onto morphine. My cough isn't constant, it happens when I bend over or turn round in bed or move suddenly.

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About Me

I've had a cough for 18 years now, and have tried many, many things to get rid of it, without any lasting success. This blog is full of ideas that people have sent me after I appeared in the newspapers, and on radio and TV, talking about it a few years ago.

Cough jokes - because we need to keep a sense of humour!

...John was a clerk in a small drugstore but he was not much of a salesman. He could never find the item the customer wanted. Bob, the owner, had had about enough and warned John that the next sale he missed would be his last.

Just then a man came in coughing and he asked John for their best cough syrup. Try as he might John could not find the cough syrup. Remembering Bob's warning he sold the man a box of Ex-Lax and told him to take it all at once. The customer did as John said and then walked outside and leaned against a lamp post.

Bob had seen the whole thing and came over to ask John what had transpired. "He wanted something for his cough but I couldn't find the cough syrup. I substituted Ex-Lax and told him to take it all at once," John explained.

"Ex-Lax won't cure a cough," Bob shouted angrily.

"Sure it will," John said, pointing at the man leaning on the lamp post. "Look at him. He's afraid to cough!"

Next: not a joke, but these emails made me laugh on the Manchester Evening News website when the story first appeared:"I can help this man. I need his address. I have a electronic device which will surely help him to cure from this caugh. If anyone can give me his address, i can post the device for free. it can also help from various body pains including back pain." sadab, Dhaka, Bangladesh

"Thanks Sadab, they're known in the UK as cattle prods. Do send it to him though..."Mr.Manchester